Nearly every organization acquires, processes, and stores highly-sensitive information. Among this information is confidential information such as personally identifiable information (PII) and business secrets. Organizations are expected to closely guard this sensitive information and manage access appropriately.
One challenge which arises when implementing cloud storage services is ensuring data confidentiality of cryptographic objects (e.g., cryptographic keys) and sensitive information. This challenge is commonly addressed via data encryption. Data encryption achieves confidentiality by translating information from its original form (plaintext) into an encoded, unintelligible form (ciphertext), which can only be decoded by an intended recipient.
A key management system (KMS), also known as a cryptographic key management system (CKMS), is a critical component of a robust encryption architecture. The KMS is involved with the generation, storage, distribution, import, and management of cryptographic keys for devices and applications. The keys in the KMS are the secret pieces of information that can be used for cryptographic operations such as signing messages or encrypting information. Therefore, a KMS that securely manages the lifecycle of keys is an important and integral part of a modern information technology (IT) system.
Existing KMS products are not tailored for multi-tenant cloud environments, require expensive hardware resources to run, and entail significant maintenance and operation overhead.
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